


Like an earthquake

by kikibug13



Series: Good Men, Good Kings [1]
Category: Kings
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-22
Updated: 2010-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-13 23:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/pseuds/kikibug13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before the coronation day, three men consider.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like an earthquake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [byzantienne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/byzantienne/gifts).



> This is less than I have, to this prompt, in my mind, but all I have time to put into coherent (more or less) words. And less than the prompt deserves.
> 
> So while this _technically_ fulfills the challenge, I will try to write the proper work that should go here, and add it as a later present.

Like an earthquake I come...

Silas could no longer recall a time when keeping power over Gilboa wasn't the most important thing for him. He had even forgotten that such a time ever existed. _King_ Silas Benjamin was who he was. He was chosen by God, and that, he remembered. He had never found the answer to _why_ God had chosen him. Other than, he was the man who could do His work. Unite His nation. Lead His people. Follow His Word.

And Silas had done that. He'd waged war, war within and without. War without mercy, war where he didn't shy to get blood on his hands, on his uniform, on his _son_ , war where those not with him were against him. He had built up Gilboa around that, as a soldier. They were his people.

They would do his will. His way.

He had cast Him aside, but still he kept his people at heart. Still served them as they needed to be served, still ruled them as they needed to be ruled, whether they knew it or wanted it or not.

He was a good man. (Had been a good man, a little voice in his mind sometimes reminded. Sons did not turn against good men, nor daughters. That was the just punishment of the wrongdoers. The voice didn't sound like Samuels, it didn't even sound like Helen, although he would have liked that. It was either Seth or Michelle, his first-born and his last, who haunted him with reminders like these.) He was a good man who was in his right, and it was his to seek that right. By whatever means necessary.

He mattered to this country. He had lead it through battles and blood, and through peace and strife, and through ashes and glory. This land needed him, the people in it needed him, and he needed them.

Especially now that He had turned away.

Jack wanted to take this. Jack who would let others take the fall for him, whether he cared for them or not, or, no, he didn't care about anyone. He had to prove himself. He had to take the power. He had to take, and show, and he never understood the reasons why something like this should happen. Why a crown lay on a king's brow.

Silas had tried, and tried, to give the right example. But something was wrong with his oldest son. The way Michelle and Seth had sickness of the body, Jack had a sickness of the soul. And no matter the discipline he followed, Jack was broken beyond repair. And if he left him have his way _now_ , that would be merely leaving William to puppeteer him and take over Gilboa for the purpose of lining his pockets. And proving his point.

Everyone wanted to prove things, usually to him. William. God. Samuels, too, probably. Even Helen. Prove him wrong.

He wasn't.

Even when had stepped away from the path he had been... Expected to follow, it had been to avert a greater disaster.

And so, now, this would be averting a greater disaster, too.

There were times, when his expectations were their darkest, when Silas toyed with the idea of naming Michelle his successor. The people loved her, that much was true. But she was too kind, too ... merciful. There was steel in her spine, of course there was, but she was a puppy who sought love and who would be broken under the weight of ruling.

She was too good. Silas hoped (and prayed, when he forgot he'd get no answer) that she never feel the burden, not truly.

Happiness did become her. Even in her own betrayal.

David. He had liked him, once. Then he had been afraid. That puppy had adored him, and yet _betrayed_ him, and all good between them had been shredded apart, trust betrayed first one way, then the other.

And Silas knew David was chosen. While he still lived and breathed, David was Chosen. The way he had been, except there had been no king before him. And David knew the right reasons.

He had loved the youth, once. He hated him now. But even better than Rose or Samuels or anyone in the world Silas knew, David understood. And David had God on his side, each step of the way. Even when he lied, he had God on his side. Even when his hands were unclean, he still did. And David never ran away.

Silas hated him a thousand times more for that.

 

You are not the one he wants

It was as it should always have been. The position his father has taunted him and goaded him with all his life.

Jack would be ready.

Despite what Samuels said. Despite what his sister said, despite any objections. Despite the fact that his father was fucking _alive_ , this was his moment. Because he _ruled_ it so. Because despite the stories his father told, Jack knew Silas had just taken the crown, taken the rule which had been up for the taking.

Now, Jack had made the rule up for the taking again. And he _would_ take it, in turn.

He'd lived his life for this. He'd given all he'd had to give, and given what hadn't been his to give, too, and it wasn't enough, it was never enough and he hated every single part of this life. But he'd wanted power once. And the moment he had known, beyond doubt, that he'd been wrong about that, the only thing he'd known he wanted was gone forever.

So he was left with wanting power, and he would _have_ it.

Even if he knew the haunted look in his father's eyes, and knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that it would not fill the abyss inside. It would make it infinite.

But he had nothing left.

He could be a good king. He knew all he had to know.

So a good king Gilboa would have.

 

Blessed

It shouldn't matter. Inside his mind, he _knew_ it didn't matter, he was helping one corrupt king replace another. And even though Jack had not spent a day on that throne, David knew, too, that Jack would be that. And worse.

Ruled by the power, rather than governing. Merciless where he should be wise. Whimsical where he should have integrity.

Backstabbing. Cruel. His mind and heart only speaking out the truth when it was too late.

And Silas...

Silas was a tyrant already.

But in his heart, David also knew. Silas had known, at least, the guidance of God. Silas had cared for his people, once. Perhaps still did. Silas had been given power, even if his clutches were now holding on to it like a man drowning.

Gilboa was drowning.

David also knew how to fix it. How to mend it, to repair where war and strife and devastation and death had rent it apart, impoverished it, made it mean. It was his gift. Eli had said so. Eli had believed he could be braved, and he had been right about that, too. But David couldn't _fix_ this without destroying it now. Silas meant too much.

And he couldn't watch it go to ruin.

And he couldn't stand to think of living there with her so close and yet so distant.

He'd go, as soon as this was done.

Maybe Silas _would_ have another chance.

A whisper over his brow made him recall the butterflies of so long ago. And in his heart, he knew that would not be all.

But now he'd do this, and he'd go. Far and away from all he loved. There was too much he loved. He'd not destroy it for his own sake. He could not. Nor let it get destroyed because Jack wouldn't ever pay enough attention to keep it from tearing itself apart, too consumed by all that was eating him.

Not perfect, but it should do for now.

Was that his own thought, or His whisper?

And who was he to decide the fate of kingdoms?


End file.
